Gendered Entrepreneurship Education and the Fear of Failure

Abstract

Studies on the impact of innovation for entrepreneurship indicate that innovation is important to foster businesses through new or improved services, products or processes. However, from a gender perspective, lack of competitiveness and innovativeness has proven to destructively affect entrepreneurs, which in many cases led to failure. There is a gap in literature on the necessity for entrepreneurship educators for a gendered educational approach, targeting the perceived fear of failure and its impact on entrepreneurial innovation. Using Global Entrepreneurship Monitor data from 1,668 entrepreneurs in Thailand, this study explores if entrepreneurs innovate in new or improved services, products or processes despite fearing to fail in their businesses: Does this differ by gender, change over time from a start-up to an established business and to which extent can this be influenced by knowing other entrepreneurs? The findings indicate that the moderating effect of knowing an entrepreneur considerably increases innovativeness by impacting fear of failure for both genders in early-stage ventures and for women in established businesses, thus reducing the fear's negative relationship to uncertainty, risk-taking and in series constraining entrepreneurial activity. Entrepreneurship education can help overcome fear of failure and in series lead to more innovative products, services and processes.

What is Entrepreneurial Fear of Failure?

“…Next, role models have been a common variable in research on entrepreneurship. Extensive empirical studies have shown that entrepreneurial role model is positively related to entrepreneurial intention (Abbasianchavari & Moritz, 2021;Ferreto et al, 2018;Guelich, 2022;Nowiński & Haddoud, 2019;Van Trang et al, 2019;Vodă, Haller, Anichiti, & Butnaru, 2020). Whether it is the entrepreneurs themselves or a startup company, the presence of entrepreneurial role models positively influences the decision to become entrepreneurs (Boldureanu, Ionescu, Bercu, Bedrule-Grigoruţă, & Boldureanu, 2020;Kong et al, 2020;Li & Wu, 2019;Wyrwich et al, 2019).…”

Entrepreneurial fear of failure among college students: A scoping review of literature from 2010 to 2023

“…Gender. Gender has been the focus of many studies on EFoF, revealing notable variations across contexts and populations, including college students [ 41 , [93] , [94] , [95] , [96] ]. The prevailing view suggests that women tend to perceive higher EFoF levels than males.…”

The Education Impact on the Innovativeness of Female Entrepreneurship: A Systematic Literature Review

“…For example, fear of failure has been identified as a significant deterrent for women initiating entrepreneurial activities (Cañizares and García, 2010). Entrepreneurship education can mitigate this fear, fostering more innovative entrepreneurial activities, positively influencing entrepreneurial intent, and helping bridge the gender gap in entrepreneurial identity (Elliott et al, 2021;Guelich, 2022). Studies also suggest that implementing regulations against gender discrimination in both public and private sectors could foster an environment conducive to entrepreneurial culture among women (Ge et al, 2022).…”

“…On the other hand, depending on the context in which it is generated, education may involve high levels of education, specific training courses, or general cultural education. As for the relationship between these two variables (RQ2), what emerges is that education plays a pivotal role in female entrepreneurship and innovation (Elliott et al, 2021;Guelich, 2022). Educational strategies focusing on entrepreneurial skills can help mitigate female entrepreneurs' barriers, fostering innovation and bridging the gender gap in entrepreneurial identity.…”